Integrated circuits (ICs) are widely utilized in modern electronic applications. For example, a power converter switching stage for use in a voltage regulator may be fabricated and packaged as an IC. Such a power converter switching stage IC typically includes a high side control transistor and a low side synchronous (sync) transistor, as well as driver circuitry designed to drive the control and sync transistors.
In many conventional implementations, a semiconductor package containing the power converter switching stage IC is utilized in combination with an output inductor of the power converter, which is often a relatively large discrete component. Consequently, conventional approaches to implementing a power converter on a printed circuit board (PCB) require PCB area sufficient to accommodate a side-by-side layout including not only the semiconductor package containing the power converter switching stage IC, but the output inductor for the power converter as well.